


Leaving Again

by sapphireswimming



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: Abandonment, Angst, Blood and Gore, Canon: Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa, Character Death, Family, Gen, Gen Work, One Shot, Thule Society (Fullmetal Alchemist), painful painful irony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-15
Updated: 2013-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:06:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23266690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphireswimming/pseuds/sapphireswimming
Summary: Hohenheim was leaving again.
Relationships: Edward Elric & Van Hohenheim
Kudos: 6





	Leaving Again

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8522124/7/At-the-End-of-All-Things

Edward's fists clenched at his sides, trembling so that he thought his metal arm would rattle leaving its echoes to reverberate against the vast marble dome.

"What is he doing here?" he seethed at the German officers, his eyes locked above him on a coiled serpent and the tweed-clad figure in its jaws, impaled by teeth longer than his hand.

"We found this was the best way to keep them both quiet," the woman answered, her voice turned silky and terrifying when accompanied by pointed shoulder pads instead of a blue Amestris uniform. Strange that he would be more uneasy around a weaponless woman than around the sharpest shot in the entire country back in his own world.

But he continued to look at the figure transfixed above his head. Realizing what the plan was, what was about to happen, and what he seemed to have no control over changing.

They were going to sacrifice Hoenheim to open the gate. Either that or use his genius to make alchemy somehow work this side of the truth and then leave him to Envy's malice when they were done with him.

It was true that his father was a hard man to kill, but Envy was more than capable of achieving the task and had wanted nothing more than the opportunity for the past 400 years.

And his father was smiling, dammit. Not only did he seem perfectly calm with the situation, he seemed happy wallowing around in his own blood up there.

The cold light glinted off of his glasses as he rearranged himself to speak, opened his mouth to pour out a string of words that should have held meaning if Ed had been able to actually listen.

It was more of the same stuff his father had been spouting since Edward had been three.

_It's better this way._

_You don't really need me._

_You don't even like me._

_You're better off without a useless decaying wretch of a monster like me._

It was true that Hoenheim wasn't a human. He hadn't been for centuries now. But hadn't Alphonse been a suit of armor and then a philosopher's stone on top of that? So why should something as petty as being a "monster" mean anything to him? They were family.

He was also right when he said the two didn't like each other. Sometimes Ed hated the man and they tolerated each other awkwardly at best.

But again, what did that matter? They were all each other had. Back then, when he needed someone to look up to, someone to protect him, someone to call an old man instead of a bastard. And now, when they were the only ones in this entire world who knew what it was like to live in Amestris where colors actually existed, and transmutations could happen at the touch of two hands, just as real as any science in this world.

They were all each other had.

But the man had never understood. Hadn't asked. Had never seen it from his son's point of view, considered what he wanted. Had never thought that even though he was the most pitiful excuse for a father that any world had ever known, he was better than none at all.

And here, when his father was dripping blood onto the gray marble, he had the gall to repeat the same drivel and smile, pretend that this was the most he could do, that this was the best option, and that he might finally be able to make some of his mistakes up to Edward by sacrificing himself here at the end of all things.

A goodbye. A struggle before a sickening crunch and cascade of blood so red that Ed couldn't see anything else.

He fell to his knees.

The gate didn't matter. The plans of the Thule Society didn't matter. Neither did the gun pointed at him now. Just the red lifeforce spilled on the floor.

Again. It had happened again.

For the third and last time in his life, the bastard decided to run away and leave him all alone.


End file.
